Chapter 111: Hunters

"What I saw with my own eyes, I've seen twice." Chen Fan shrank his neck, recalling the scene of that day.

Confessing to criminal facts is like urinating; once it starts, even if it's intermittent, it's hard to stop.

Under Liu Liu Jinghui's "encouragement," Chen Fan slowly said, "The first time, it was two backpackers, the kind who came to explore. They were both carrying big bags, looking very professional. They saw Old Hu shooting birds with an air gun, so they shouted, scaring Old Hu's birds away."

Liu Liu Jinghui listened quietly.

Chen Fan paused slightly, then continued, "I saw Old Hu and the others weren't happy, so I went up wanting to show off, and started yelling at them. Those two people started talking about environmental protection or something, saying that frogs are now 'three-have' protected animals, let alone pheasants..."

"Who is Old Hu?"

"I don't know his name either, I just call him what my uncle calls him."

"Is he your biological uncle? What's his name?"

Chen Fan didn't hesitate much anymore and said, "Chen Chen Deling."

Liu Liu Jinghui signaled the clerk next to him to record it clearly, then said, "Continue."

"Yes, I ran a few errands for them at the time, just wanting to be helpful, and I was even bickering with them, and then I saw Old Guo circle around from the side... Old Guo is also a quiet one, I only know him as Old Guo."

Liu Liu Jinghui nodded and asked, "He detoured, and then?"

"Then, just like when hunting, he had a double-barreled shotgun, the break-action kind, the kind you break open at the barrel and stuff two bullets into. Old Guo is the team's heavy artilleryman; the shotgun is used for hunting wild boars and bears."

When Chen Fan spoke of firearms, he actually showed some excitement, licked his lips, and said, "Old Guo's double-barreled shotgun uses 12-gauge shells; one shot to a bear's head can blow off half its skull."

Liu Liu Jinghui had someone pour him a glass of water.

Chen Fan drank it, then recalled, "I was still talking, and when I noticed Old Guo, he had already loaded his bullets, and then *bang, bang*, two shots, and both backpackers flew away."

"Old Guo shot and hit two people?"

"Yeah, Old Guo hit their chests and abdomens; the two struggled for a while and then died."

"And then?"

"Then they made me put on gloves, check their backpacks, organize everything that could be used, then drag the bodies to the side of the road, cover them with tree leaves or something, and then carry the bags and follow them to continue hunting..." Chen Fan's voice lowered as he spoke.

Liu Liu Jinghui asked many more details, especially the location of the bodies, etc.

Liu Liu Jinghui hoped to confirm this case as well. If they could find a bit of human remains at the crime scene, such as a bone, then their investigation and interrogation would be a success!

As for the rest, catching the poaching criminal gang, Director Liu was rather confident.

No matter how cunning a criminal gang is, facing the strangulation of the state apparatus, they are extremely powerless.

This process was like searching for a corpse in a septic tank; knowing that the septic tank was the most important thing was key. As for the process of fishing out the corpse, although it was disgusting, troublesome, and perhaps long, as long as the previous steps were done correctly, the later steps would inevitably yield results.

"What about the second time?" Liu Liu Jinghui asked as if chatting, his tone flat.

Having reached this point, Chen Fan couldn't stir up any more trouble.

Chen Fan himself actually knew this, leaned back, and seemed to become relaxed: "The second time, it was also two people, two female backpackers. One of them was quite pretty, like the school beauty when I was in school."

"And then?"

"Then, it was about the same as the first time. We happened to run into them while hunting, and the two were chattering on and on. Old Hu went up and directly blew the one in front away."

"What did he use to blow her away?"

"NZ75, the CZ75 copied by Norinco." Chen Fan explained it very clearly.

Jiang Yuan in the surveillance room searched online and found that the NZ75 uses 9mm bullets.

"After the woman in front was killed, what happened?"

"Old Hu still told us to drag her to the side of the road. Then... the other woman was prettier, so they made her carry all their stuff on the road. By the afternoon, when that woman was too tired to walk, they raped her, then killed her, then carried away the remaining things they needed, and left the rest for me to handle."

In just a short paragraph, the people present were stunned again.

Liu Liu Jinghui's expression didn't change, but his heartbeat seemed to stop for a moment. Although he was a veteran criminal police officer, hearing such things still made him feel uncomfortable subconsciously, even wanting to vomit, like a physiological disgust.

This was no longer just wanton behavior; it was extreme coldness and terror.

Jiang Yuan in the surveillance room thought about the state of the bodies. Skeletonized bodies are very difficult to prove rape on. If they hadn't caught the people, no one would know that the victims had suffered such encounters before they died.

"Did you participate in the gang rape?" Liu Liu Jinghui asked.

"No." Chen Fan answered hurriedly.

"What about the others?"

"Just Old Guo and Old Liu. They demanded it."

"What about Old Hu?"

"He didn't participate either." Chen Fan whispered, "Old Hu just likes hunting."

"So, you've seen murder twice, but saw 4 people killed?" Liu Liu Jinghui summarized Chen Fan's testimony.

Chen Fan nodded and said, "Yes."

"Afterward, how did you handle it?" Liu Liu Jinghui asked.

"I carried the supplies and trash they didn't want to a rather deep pool and added stones. I also dragged the bodies to the foot of the mountain slope and buried them with dirt."

Chen Fan's confession up to this point already matched the Su Qin and Sun Sun Jingyi cases mastered by the special task force.

Although the details of the initial Li Li Sanqiu case were not yet clear, the framework of this serial case was basically established.

Liu Liu Jinghui continued to pursue more information.

At the same time, the police officers outside also began to gather in squads, some heading to the old hunting trails of Wu Long Mountain to find the whereabouts of the items Chen Fan confessed to, while more were waiting for the arrest.

With Chen Fan's introduction, the face of the gang gradually became clear.

They were a group of old hunters living in the mountains, totaling five people. Because hunting was no longer allowed in many places and guns were being confiscated, the few gathered together, hunting themselves and selling the game for money.

They specialized in hunting endangered protected animals because they could sell for higher prices.

Gradually, they began to receive more orders and harvest more income.

With the growth of income, plus interest, the gang spent most of the year in the mountains.

They are like hunters, similar to those who fish for sport.

And they killed people.

Because of his uncle, Chen Fan started the job of delivering supplies to the hunters. Food, drink, medicine, tents, etc., all had to be supplied from outside the mountain, including firearms and ammunition, which had several fixed suppliers.

Like Chen Fan, he supplied air gun parts and bullets all year round and helped reload bullets.

The interrogation continued, while Jiang Yuan walked out of the surveillance room.

There were too many people inside, and the air was a bit foul, making it hard to breathe.

In the courtyard of the Wenxiang police station, police officers from various units were communicating with each other. Different types of police from different units seemed quite harmonious at this time. Without knowing the details, the criminal police, public security, supervision, and political work staff were all chatting quite happily.

Most of the people here didn't know the specific case details, and there was no need to know. Anyway, it was just a task of investigation, search, and arrest, which everyone was very familiar with.

Jiang Yuan walked past, suddenly feeling that he was a bit out of place...

"Jiang Yuan." Wei Zhengguo suddenly appeared and pulled him over happily.

"Team Wei!" Jiang Yuan was pleasantly surprised.

In this environment, suddenly seeing a familiar face from the police station felt inexplicably extra intimate.

He immediately thought that he had returned to Ningtai County, and with Liu Liu Jinghui gathering troops for such a big case, it was inevitable that personnel would be transferred from the Ningtai County Bureau.

Wei Zhengguo was also in a good mood, patted Jiang Yuan's shoulder hard a few times, and whispered, "You've worked hard, you look a bit thinner. Everyone says you've performed meritorious service, but you haven't been seen back. How is it? Is it interesting following the 'Reasoning King'?"

"A bit tired, but it's okay." Jiang Yuan's emotions were at a critical point. Hearing the words "you've worked hard," his eyes felt inexplicably sore.

However, seeing a familiar face was still very intimate and happy.

Wei Zhengguo was also a person with experience. One look at Jiang Yuan's expression and state, and he knew this was because he had seen too many dirty things. Young people, especially new police officers, were all educated in orthodox ways before, in the prime of their lives, and even if there were messy things on the internet, they might not empathize with them.

But once you experience it yourself, it's different. This is the transformation from a new police officer to an old police officer. Forensic doctors are even more so, even more intuitive.

Things like the dark side of society cannot be truly adapted to, and criminals always do dirty things that you cannot accept just when you think you know and have seen enough!

Wei Zhengguo patted Jiang Yuan's arm hard.

"Let's go, let's go, smoke a cigarette."

He hugged Jiang Yuan and walked away, incidentally calling over Mu Mu Zhiyang and other relatively familiar police officers.

Several criminal police officers from Ningtai County Bureau found a pomegranate tree, surrounded the red pomegranate potted plant, and started smoking, swallowing clouds and blowing mist.

In a short while, a large number of cigarette butts had accumulated in the pomegranate pot.

Several criminal police officers were as happy as if they had transformed the environment, and when they talked about recent unit stories, they all showed relaxed smiles.

Jiang Yuan was in the midst of it, smoking the not-so-good-smelling Changbaishan handed to him by Team Wei.

His heart inexplicably calmed down.

He suddenly realized that he wasn't the only one with accumulated emotions.

And he wasn't the only one standing on the front line of blocking the darkness.

They were together.

———Off-topic———

Update is late, meow~ ===== CHAPTER 112 =====